Two coroners to testify in Newark schoolyard slayings trial

NEWARK — Two coroners who conducted autopsies on the three college-bound students fatally shot behind Mount Vernon School will testify today at the trial of one of the defendants charged in the killing.

A forensic anthropologist will also testify that the cut wounds one of the victims sustained was consistent with a machete knife.

Alexander Alfaro is one of six young men who were charged with murder in the Aug. 4, 2007 attack that killed Iofemi Hightower and Dashon Harvey, both 20, and Terrance Aeriel, 18. Terrence’s sister was shot but survived and has already testified in court, though she could not identify Alfaro. Two other defendants are now serving life terms in prison for their roles in the crime.

Alfaro, now 20, is accused of attacking Hightower that night in the schoolyard with a machete, which prosecutors said he brought from his home. So far, prosecutors have not linked Alfaro directly to the scene through DNA or fingerprints, but have said he provided a statement to police after his arrest, in which he admitted to using the machete. That statement will be played in court at some point.

The trial in Superior Court in Newark began on March 1, but today’s session will be just the sixth day.